Hello, Im in the middle of a big bodywork project at the moment. The car is going to take a lot of work to get ready for paint. Just got new patch panels on the front and the dents knocked out. After the doors are done it will be time for the new back quarters. My question is, who sells the best fitting and looking quarters? I was looking at ordering from year one, because they are fairly cheap. One of these days I may start posting before and after pictures......

 

Someone correct me if i'm wrong, but i'm pretty sure all the repro panels (unless you're buying NOS stuff) are all stamped at the same couple factories overseas.

I would totally go for whatever you can find for cheapest, besides, you're going to have to shim/shape/work on whatever panel you buy, Repro or NOS.

Best of luck,

-Tony

 

Unfortunately for the 68/69 Cutlass body cars you will only find quarter skins. These take a fair amount of work to fit and you can get good results. I bought a set from The Parts Place and I was pleased with what I received. I put them on a convertible so I had a lot more work to do that someone who has a HT or CP. The panels I bought also had enough metal in front of the rear wheels where they completely covered the rocker and that appeared to be the intent. But since that is not the way they were originally done, I trimmed them, bent it so there was a flange and put that flange on top of the rocker like GM did. Took a LOT of fitting and measuring to get that right the first time. Also, do not cut your quarters into the door jams as the repro quarters have a rounded edge along the door edge where the factory was a much sharper bend. See if anyone else has any other experience with other sources but I wouldn't cut your quarters until you have the skins in hand.

Also, be careful as I have seen some of these 68/69 skins without cut-outs for the side markers. If you want these lights, get panels with these holes already there.

 

Okay, thank you for the responses. I figured that they were all close to the same, but figured I would ask.

 

I have had good luck wiith Tabco. They are stamped in Ohio and have a made in the USA sticker right on them. They are thicker than the others I have seen and they are galvanized. The do not come with light holes in the though.

 

The best course of action is always to save whatever is original on the car as long as it is not rusted out, bondo smattered, etc. By using skins, this type of work can be done. This approach also helps with eliminating a multitude of fitment issues when a totally/Full new part is introduced to the car. There will be work to be sure using a skin, but much less. If you can do it this way, that would be my suggestion.

 

They are not galvanized as welding on galvanized metal produces poisonous gas. They are either treated metal or E-coated but not galvanized.